


Two Lonely Ladies

by SingingInTheRaiin



Series: Worth the Wait [3]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Regeneration, The Library, Time Travel, Weddings, but you'll always end up where you need to be, pretty much just assume that most of the canon stuff in River's life still happened in this, somehow the smartest people in the room are always the idiots, you may not always end up where you want to go
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-25
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-11-02 14:02:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20769968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SingingInTheRaiin/pseuds/SingingInTheRaiin
Summary: "The footsteps only grew closer, and Melody couldn’t help shaking slightly at the thought of how she might be punished. She squeezed her eyes shut, and clenched her hands tight enough for her nails to dig painfully into her palms. How could she had been so stupid?Then the footsteps were right next to her, and Melody could feel her panic growing (pushing aside the question of how she’d missed the sound of the door opening), and then there was a calm, unfamiliar voice coming from the side of her. “I’m looking for the Doctor. Do you know him?” Melody’s eyes snapped open to look at the stranger."Rose rescues Melody Pond at a time when both of them are in desperate need of a family.





	Two Lonely Ladies

Melody could hear the footsteps just out in the hallway, and she tried to curl up into an even smaller ball. She’d made a run for it, even knowing how much trouble she’d get into for doing such a thing. But like an absolute idiot, she hadn’t properly planned out her escape, and the only unguarded exit was locked and impossible to break through without any tools. So Melody had switched gears and hidden in the study. Her best bet at this point would be if everyone split up to search for her, and then she could loop around behind them and leave.

But the footsteps only grew closer, and Melody couldn’t help shaking slightly at the thought of how she might be punished. She squeezed her eyes shut, and clenched her hands tight enough for her nails to dig painfully into her palms. How could she had been so stupid?

Then the footsteps were right next to her, and Melody could feel her panic growing (pushing aside the question of how she’d missed the sound of the door opening), and then there was a calm, unfamiliar voice coming from the side of her. “I’m looking for the Doctor. Do you know him?” Melody’s eyes snapped open to look at the stranger. She was a young woman with blonde hair and brown eyes, which grew more concerned the longer that she looked at Melody. “Nevermind that. Are you alright? What’s going on?”

Even though Melody was supposed to be a big girl now, she could feel tears leaking from her eyes. “I just want to go home,” she whimpered.

The woman’s face was full of sympathy, and she reached her arms out, though she didn’t actually touch Melody, and instead waited for Melody to dive into her arms. She had no idea who this woman was, but something inside of her said that this woman was someone who could be trusted. “Where is home?”

Melody shrugged. “Somewhere far away.” Then she tilted her head back to look at the woman curiously. “Can you help me get there? If you do, I can help you. I know how to find the Doctor.” She thought it best not to mention the part where she was being trained to kill him. 

For a moment, a look of shock crossed the woman’s face, and then she gave Melody a smile so brilliant that Melody nearly forgot all of her fear and worry in that moment. “Oh, darling, I’m going to help you get home, but you don’t need to do anything for me in return. The Doctor may be a daft old man, but he’ll be able to survive a little longer without me.” She stood up, carefully pulling Melody up with her. “We’re going to get you out of here.”

Melody gripped the woman’s hand tightly, and even though she didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth, she had to know- “How do you know that I’m not just pretending and making you help me run away?”

The woman looked down at her thoughtfully, and then a sad look passed across her face. “That fear you were feeling when I spotted you, it’s something I’m familiar with.” She glanced around, but no one was suddenly bursting into the room to drag Melody back to her room. “When I was younger, I wanted desperately to travel and see everything in the world. I met a man who offered to show it all to me, so I left home with him, and we traveled far away. But it turned out that he was- he was mean. I was always on edge, afraid to say or do something that would make him act mean again.”

“So how did you get away?” Even though Melody knew nothing about this woman, she couldn’t help finding it almost hard to believe that she’d ever been afraid of anything. 

The woman shrugged one shoulder. “My best mate found me. He’d gotten worried when he hadn’t heard from me in almost a year, and so he showed up in person. But the guy I was with misunderstood the situation, and got jealous, and I- I ended up getting badly hurt. My mate begged me to go home with him, so I did. And eventually I did get the chance the travel, and explore more of the universe than I could have ever thought possible, and it was with someone who would never intentionally be mean to me.”

Melody squeezed the woman’s hand tighter. It was obvious that even though her story had taken place a long time ago, it was still something that caused pain to think about. “But that was your best mate. You don’t even know me, so why would you help me for nothing in return?” She didn’t want to feel suspicious of someone who was offering to get her out of here, but she’d never been given anything for free before.

Her question only made the woman look sadder, and she almost regretted asking it. “I would never be able to live with myself if someone needed my help but I refused to give it to them.”

For now, that would have to do. And besides, there was something in Melody that just inherently trusted the woman, so she nodded once. “Alright, take me home now, please.”

The door to the study suddenly burst open, and it occurred to Melody that the woman might not actually be capable of taking her home. But she could see the confident look on the woman’s face, and did her best to copy the expression. “Now I know this situation must be quite scary,” she told Melody quietly. “So I want to tell you that it’s okay to be scared. Everyone has things that they’re scared of. And right now, I promise that I will be brave enough for the both of us.”

Melody shook her head. “Thanks, but I can be brave too.” Then she faced her teacher, and her mind cycled through the different forms of fighting she’d been taught. With some help, she might actually have a chance to-

Between one blink and the next, the study and the teacher and the aliens were all gone, and instead, Melody was standing on a crowded, unfamiliar sidewalk. She looked up at her rescuer. “Where are we? And more importantly, what’s your name?”

,,,

The hotel room that they were staying in was definitely the nicest place Melody had ever slept in, and she didn’t care that she hadn’t been able to bring any of her clothes or toys, because she was free, and she was safe, and Rose was happy to acquire pretty much whatever Melody asked for (apparently getting the president of the United States’s phone number “wouldn’t be funny” and could “have dangerous consequences”, though Melody had no doubt that Rose could get it if she wanted to. It seemed that there was nothing Rose couldn’t do). 

Melody watched carefully as Rose plonked down onto the other bed, and then grabbed the remote to flip on the TV. She’d been watching Rose for the past four days, ever since they appeared in the middle of New York City without moving an inch. Melody couldn’t help wanting to know just who- and what- Rose was. 

After seeing the woman accomplish so many impossible things, it was a bit bizarre to see that she’d turned on some trashy looking reality show on TV, and actually looked pretty into it. “Isn’t that stuff supposed to rot your brain?” Melody blurted out.

Rose glanced over at her, amusement clearly written across her features. “You sound like the Doctor. Good thing my mum isn’t here.”

And, well, despite everything else, somehow that was the most shocking thing Melody had heard. Of course she knew logically that all humans had to have parents (even her, no matter how impossible it seemed), but for some reason, the idea of Rose having a mom, and one who liked watching trashy TV at that, seemed beyond the realm of possibility. Rose just seemed so… beyond human. 

“Speaking of mums,” Rose’s voice softly interrupted Melody’s thoughts. “Have you remembered where home is yet? It’s okay if you haven’t, of course. I’ll be here for as long as you need me. I just want to make sure you end up where you belong. You deserve a happy ending, Melody.”

Suddenly, Melody felt too shy to explain what she was feeling. She still barely knew Rose, but somehow, she’d already come to think of the woman as ‘home’. She just shrugged, and pulled her knees up to her chest. “You don’t have to stay with me, if you’ve got somewhere else to be. Weren’t you looking for the Doctor?”

Rose muted the TV before giving Melody a long, careful look. “I’ve got all the time in the world, darling. And I can see that you need me much more than the Doctor does.”

The topic of finding Melody’s original home didn’t come up again, and after spending two more weeks in the fancy hotel, Rose declared that they were checking out. She took Melody’s hand, and made sure to hold on tight so that they wouldn’t get separated on the crowded streets. 

They ended up walking to a tall, modern looking building, and took the elevator up a couple of floors. Rose searched around in the small pocket of her jeans for a comically long time before pulling out a key, triumphant look on her face as she unlocked the door that they’d stopped in front of. She pushed the door open, and then gestured grandly. “Ta-da!”

Melody slowly stepped inside, and could immediately see that they were in a nice, furnished apartment with shiny floors and a great view of the city. “What’s this?”

Rose looked shy all of a sudden, and tossed the key to Melody before jamming her hands into her pockets. “I just thought that a hotel is no place for a little girl to grow up in.”

“Are you… leaving me here?”

Rose immediately shook her head, and then only hesitated for a moment before pulling Melody into a hug. “Oh, darling, of course not. I told you I’d stay for as long as you need me, remember? I’m not leaving until you want me to.”

Melody returned the hug, probably a little tighter than was comfortable, and didn’t mention that she couldn’t imagine ever wanting to send Rose away. She’d never felt so safe in her entire life as she did right in that moment, in Rose’s arms.

,,,

Rose would sometimes disappeared or reappeared right in front of Melody’s eyes. She always made sure to promise when she’d be back, and was never gone for longer than a couple of minutes, or an hour at the very most. Melody didn’t find any of that to be too strange, though, considering that she’d been raised by literal aliens.

It wasn’t until her class at school was going around and talking about their parents’ professions that it occurred to Melody just how little she actually knew about her guardian. When Melody got home from school that day, Rose was waiting there, just like always. There was takeout on the counter (Melody had learned very early on that asking Rose to cook was just inviting trouble). 

After they’d both eaten their fill, Melody helped clear the table, and then looked at Rose curiously. “What’s your job? I mean, what do you do to make money?”

Rose blinked a few times. “Ah, I had wondered when you’d ask.” She reached into her pocket- which Melody had learned were somehow bigger on the inside- and pulled out a small notepad. She held it out for Melody to take, and she flipped it open to the first page. It was blank. Before she could ask about it, words appeared across the page, and it looked as though they’d always been there. It said something about being a bank certificate, and she looked up at Rose with wide eyes. “Psychic paper. Comes in handy.” Then the bank certificate was gone, replaced by an official looking ID with Rose’s picture, but a bunch of made-up information. “Says whatever I want it to.”

Melody handed the notepad back, though she felt even more curious than before. “If you don’t work to make money, then where do you go when you disappear?” She didn’t bother asking how it was possible for a person to just vanish, since she wasn’t sure that Rose would answer that anyways, and Melody hated to be disappointed. 

Rose grinned, that big, brilliant grin that always meant it was time to get up to mischief. “Miss Melody, how would you like to travel in time?”

,,,

Traveling with Rose was brilliant, and Melody couldn’t wait to be done with school so that she could start doing it full time. Rose insisted that Melody continue with her education and only travel in her spare time, and had then quietly mentioned that she’d never finished school herself. So even though it was annoying, and Melody was usually leaps ahead of her classmates, she was determined to finish school and make Rose proud.

In the meantime, though, she could enjoy the small trips that Rose did bring her on. They went to the future, and the past, and everywhere in between, all over the country. They saw so many incredible things, and Melody couldn’t understand how anyone could live without having this.

As they landed, Rose looked around with the same curious look she always had when they landed. She’d explained once that she didn’t have great control over where or when they went, not without a great deal of concentration when she had a tagalong, but that she could always figure out the destination once they were there. “Hm, boring. Leadworth, England, 1999. Well, might as well see what kind of adventure we can whip up for ourselves, eh?”

But after a few hours, it seemed clear that Leadworth was an adventureless place. “Why don’t you wait here while I go get us some ice cream? I’ve always wondered if English ice cream tastes better than the American stuff.” She hurried off, eager to show Rose that she could be quite independent for a girl her age (whatever that might be), She had a single piece of psychic paper in her pocket. Even if her usual pocket money wouldn’t seem fake because of the future dates, it would still be the wrong currency.

As Melody walked back to where she’d seen the ice cream shop, she suddenly turned to look over at the little playground. There was a blonde boy and a red haired girl who looked about Melody’s age, and something about them seemed so familiar. She started towards them before she could even think about it, suddenly unable to see anything other than the pair of children.

Which is why she didn’t notice the car speeding around the corner. It rammed into her, and Melody’s body exploded with pain. She was flung back like a ragdoll, and the car jolted to an abrupt stop. The driver got out and rushed over to her. “Oh god, I didn’t see you, I swear!” He looked around, but they weren’t in front of any houses at the moment, and Melody was only vaguely aware of him shouting for help. She already knew that it was too late, though. She could feel her body just shutting down.

Then she felt a warm presence, and forced her eyes open long enough to see Rose kneeling next to him. Rose’s eyes were red as she reached out to gently hold one of Melody’s hands. “I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. I should never have taken you with me. You were safe, and happy, and I was just so lonely, so selfish, and I-” She cut herself off with a loud sob. “I’m so sorry,” and then she just whispered that over and over.

Melody did her best to give Rose’s hand a comforting squeeze, though she could barely even feel her own hand at the moment. She couldn’t help thinking, though, that it was all so disappointing. After everything she’d been through, and all the fantastic and dangerous things she’d seen, she was going to die by some random accident with a car? It didn’t seem fair. 

But then she focused on listening to Rose, whose voice was soothing even in this situation. Melody didn’t want to leave her guardian alone. Rose needed to be with people. “Find the Doctor,” she croaked out. “Please.”

,,,

River handcuffed the unconscious Doctor to a solid surface, and then turned back to the chair. She took in a deep breath, then slowly let it out as she started messing with the wires and setting it up so that she’d be able to connect herself to it. It hurt to think that the entire time she’d known him, the Doctor had always known how she was going to die, but in the end, what difference did it make? 

As she worked, River heard the soft sound of footsteps, and she whipped around, prepared to see one of the shadow-filled suits. Instead, she saw a familiar face, and River was filled with a warm, golden feeling. She was able to offer a genuine smile despite the situation. “Rose, I should have known that you’d show up. You always do when I need you most.”

Instead of one of her usual greetings, Rose lunged forward and pulled River into a tight hug. River realized a moment later that Rose’s shoulders were shaking, and she leaned back enough to see the tears dripping down Rose’s face. She wasn’t sure what to say, and she wasn’t sure how to interpret this reaction as anything other than a sign then it was truly where River was going to die. “I’m so sorry,” Rose gasped out. “I don’t know how you’re here now, but I swear that if I’d known you were alive, I would have never left you.”

It took a moment, and then River’s eyes widened in realization. She pulled away to give Rose a searching look, and searched through her memory at the same time. And- yes, there it was. The first time River had regenerated, at least that she could remember, Rose had been wearing those exact same clothes. And now Rose was just staring at her with watery eyes, and River realized that she should probably say something. “I never blamed you for leaving me there. I’m actually glad for it, because it gave me the chance to get to know some- some good people. I always missed you, but I managed to have a good life.”

Rose reached up to rub at her eyes. “I’m glad,” she said softly. “I just wanted you to be happy. Were you?” 

River thought about all the insanity of her life, and about all the terrifying, horrifically dangerous things she’d been through. She also thought of getting to travel with her parents, and getting to know the Doctor- and Rose, of course. She grinned widely. “I wouldn’t have had it any other way.” She knew that it wasn’t a direct answer, but also knew that Rose would understand. So she quickly moved on to a question of her own. “If you haven’t seen me since I was ten and had a much different face, how did you recognize me just now?”

Rose tilted her head to the side before shrugging. “Because you’re Melody,” she said, as if that was supposed to answer everything. She got a frustrated look as she tried to explain better. “Everyone has a place that they exist in the grand scheme of things, a- a certain spot in time that they occupy. Because I jump around so much, I tend to look more at a person’s Time than at their face, and it’s a very unique thing, so I know for sure that it wouldn’t look the same if you weren’t the same person.” Then she frowned. “And why did you act like it hasn’t been decades or-” she gave River a knowing look. “-or longer since you’d last seen me? You didn’t seem at all surprised to see me.” Before River could answer, though, Rose looked around, apparently having just gotten interested in where they were. Her eyes widened, and one hand flew up to press against her mouth as she spotted the unconscious Doctor. “What happened to him?” She dropped to her knees and reached out to feel the Doctor’s hearts beat. 

River cleared her throat. “Ah, yeah, I’m actually in the middle of a bit of a situation here.” She gave a brief explanation of what was going on in the Library, all while Rose looked like she couldn’t even tear her eyes off of the Time Lord for even a second. 

When she finished talking, River just stood there kind of awkwardly, even though she went out of her way to never feel awkward. That’s when Rose finally stood up, though it looked as though it almost physically pained her to turn away from the Doctor. “Well, I suppose there’s only one thing to do about all that now.” River furrowed her eyebrows, trying to see the solution that she must have missed, when Rose just grabbed River’s hand and gave her a big smile. “Run!”

River pulled her hand free before they could disappear. “If I don’t do this, people will be trapped here forever. Or the Doctor will do it himself. We both know that he’s much more important to the universe than I am.”

Rose stubbornly shook her head. “In all my time being alive, I have never once seen anyone more important to the universe than anyone else. Would you like to know a little secret, Melody? The universe doesn’t care about any of us. But I can’t be like that. I care. And I won’t die if I sit in that chair. I’ve got even more empty space than a big Time Lord brain.”

“You can’t,” River snapped, and when Rose only gave her a curious look, River crossed her arms over her chest. “You can’t be here when the Doctor wakes up, because you weren’t, or you won’t be. I’ve been moving through time in the opposite direction as the Doctor for quite a while now, and even though I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, this isn’t where you get reunited. It can’t be.” She thought of what her father had once told her, about how Rose had waited with him for over a thousand years and kept him sane while he waited. She also thought about how the Doctor might never end up taking along Amy and Rory in the first place if he had Rose by his side to begin with. What if he regenerated into a different person? What if the many worlds and lives that the Doctor had saved were left to ruin? As much as River wanted to offer a happy ending to Rose, she knew that it wasn’t time for that yet. 

There was a moment of silence, and then Rose’s eyes flashed gold for just a second before her shoulders slumped down in defeat. “I can’t just leave you here.” And even though River could remember when Rose had seemed like an immortal goddess to her, right now all she could see was a young woman in pain, with a face that showed just how young she was, despite her age. It felt very strange to be the one who knew more for once, at least when it came to Rose, and while she sometimes enjoyed hinting the future to the Doctor, she found that it wasn't as fun when it was Rose. 

River pulled Rose into another hug, and then backed away, pressing a light kiss to the top of Rose’s head. “It’s okay. We still need to meet for the second time, and then you’ll see me again. I know it’s spoilers, but- you’ll find the Doctor again, I promise. Now get out of here, there’s only a couple of minutes left for me to do this.”

For a moment, she thought that Rose would argue with her, but then she just bowed her head down in resignation. “You’re all grown now, aren’t you? You’re so brave and beautiful and wonderful. I always knew that you could do it, grow up to be the person that you are.” River’s heart hurt as she remembered hearing almost the same thing when she’d first re-met Rose. Which meant that in a way, Rose had been making fun of her back then, or at least of her lack of knowledge. 

River swallowed down the sobs that were caught in her throat. She suddenly felt like a child again, just a little girl waiting to be rescued by someone fantastic. “I know that I’m very old, and that the five years we had together were hardly anything at all, but even so, you were the best parent anybody could ever ask for.” And long after childhood, too, though River didn’t want to give too many spoilers. “I’ll see you again someday.” She gave Rose one last hug, and then the other woman disappeared. It was only a minute after that that the Doctor woke up, and River knew what she had to do.

,,,

River never expected to wake up again, so the fact that she did came as quite a surprise to her. She looked around, and gasped when she realized that she was in her childhood bedroom. She threw aside the blanket that had been tucked around her, and hurried to the kitchen, where she could smell something burning. 

Rose turned around from where she was stirring something at the stove, and gave River a big grin. “The Doctor is such a clever man, isn’t he? He saved you to the computer, just like all the others had been. But then he had to leave, because he’d promised the shadows that he would. But I’ve never been particularly scared of the dark, so I waited until everyone else was gone, and then I took you back out and brought you here. I wonder- do you still consider the 52nd century to be home?”

River grinned, and noticed that the motion felt strange. “Home isn’t a place, or a time. I learned that from the best.” Then she walked over to the mirror that hung up in the hallway, and looked at her face. It was a new one, and she wasn’t sure whether to be surprised or not. She had thought that she couldn’t regenerate anymore. Then again, Rose seemed to excel at accomplishing the impossible. And now that she looked like a whole new woman- well. There were surely all kinds of new ways to mess with the Doctor. She walked back into the kitchen, and nudged Rose aside so that she could take over the cooking. Then she realized that she would need to dump the entire pot, and start from scratch. “You’re hopeless on your own,” she said in the fondest possible voice.

Rose rolled her eyes, but looked quite pleased. “Yeah, well. Lucky then that I’m not, right?”

“Hey, don’t ask me for any spoilers.” Though River had immediately recognized her new face, and knew quite a big spoiler that was attached to it. 

Rose shrugged, and then reached over to give River a one-armed hug. “I’d never dare,” though the mischievous grin on her face seemed to say otherwise. 

,,,

Many years ago, or perhaps many years to come- depending on who was asked- there was a wedding to celebrate. There were many guests gathered, from all across time and space, waiting to see the happy ending for two such wonderful people. 

Rory felt nervous, not wanting to mess up anything and ruin Rose’s big day (or second big day, technically). What if he dropped the rings, or said something stupid, or tripped over his own feet? Sure, his own wedding had gone smoothly enough, but Rose and the Doctor were such trouble magnets that it was hard to believe everything would go quite as easily for them. 

When River Song showed up, Rory was glad to hurry over, having a clear goal. He needed to direct her to Rose’s changing room so that they could see each other and chat before River gave Rose away- though he still wasn’t quite sure why it was River doing it, of all people. Then again, it’s not exactly like they could pluck Rose’s dad out of time and bring him to an intergalactic wedding and then just expect him to accept everything and then forget about it all. 

“River! Rose’s room is down that hall.” He pointed in the right way once he’d jogged close enough to the other woman.

River gave him a confused look. “Okay…?”

Rory shrugged. “I just thought that since you’re giving her away, you’d want to-”

“Wait, what?” River gave him a long look. “I’m doing what? If anything, she should be the one giving me away! Not that this is my wedding, mind. But I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Rory frowned. “I- maybe I misunderstood, but I thought Rose had mentioned that she wanted you to…” he trailed off, feeling awkward.

River just shrugged. “All she asked me to do is show up, and I’d never turn down a free meal. Especially if there’s cake involved.”

Later, once the ceremony actually started, Rory watched to see who would walk Rose down the aisle (they’d decided to combine elements of the traditional wedding Rose expected with the traditional bonding ceremony for Time Lords). He tried not to frown when he realized that he didn’t recognize the woman who had her elbow linked with Rose’s. But the important part was that Rose looked happy, so Rory shrugged off his confusion, assuming that there were probably thousands of people Rose knew who had never come up in conversation, if only because of how old she was. 

Both parts of the ceremony went off without a hitch- well, except for the part where the Doctor forgot to say ‘I do’ because he was too busy staring at Rose with a dopey grin. Once it was all over, it was time for the party to begin. Rory thought that the party at his own wedding had been pretty great, but it had nothing on a party full of aliens and time travelers, and taking place on a TARDIS that could provide anything anyone could think of. Unfortunately one thing the TARDIS couldn’t give was answers. The woman who’d walked Rose down the aisle had disappeared almost immediately after the wedding, so there had been no time for Rory to introduce himself and ask who she was. Then again, considering how much time travel was involved, it was entirely possible that he’d still meet her someday.

When the TARDIS was finally emptied out, everyone having been returned to their proper places and times, the Doctor gently told Rory and Amy that they needed to go home too, at least for a few days so that he and Rose could enjoy their honeymoon on their own. Both humans were more than happy to give the newlyweds their space.

While the Doctor started putting in the coordinates to bring them home, Rory suddenly remembered something, and rushed to his and Amy’s room. The TARDIS went easy on him, and made it the first door he spotted. He went inside and rummaged around through the top drawer of the dresser until he found what he was looking for, and then went back to the console room to grab Rose and pull her into the kitchen.

“I uh, I almost forgot to give you your wedding present.”

“You didn’t have to get me anything,” Rose told him, even as a grin lit up her face. “But that being said, I do love getting presents.”

Suddenly Rory wasn’t sure if he’d put enough thought or effort into this gift. It hadn’t cost him anything, thanks to the help he’d gotten from the TARDIS, and what if it was stupid? Rose was his best friend, and she deserved cool stuff, but she also had access to all of time and space, so how could Rory possibly give her anything she couldn’t get on her own?

Before he could overthink it, he practically shoved the wrapped box into Rose’s hand. She looked even more delighted at the fact that the present was wrapped. She tore the paper off, and Rory couldn’t hold back a small smile at her almost child-like eagerness. There was a small box left in Rose’s hand, and she gave Rory a curious glance before carefully opening it.

Inside was a silver locket with a gold and pink rose etched onto the cover. Rose picked it up, and opened it. Inside was a small screen that showed a picture of Rose with the Doctor’s arm thrown over her shoulder, both of them looking utterly smitten. “Oh, Rory, this is so beautiful, thank you.”

“That’s not all. It’s a screen, not a photo, so you can swipe over to see more.” Rose nodded, and then tested it out, and her eyes widened at the sight. 

Rory had asked for the TARDIS for help, and despite all the rules about ‘spoilers’, she’d helped him. Inside the locket was a picture of every Doctor, and all the ones Rose would ever meet had her in their picture as well. And the final picture was of Rose’s painting of the entire lot of them. Her eyes looked watery as she looked down at her gift. “Oh, Rory… thank you.” She pulled him into a tight hug, and then handed him the necklace and held up her hair so that he could put it on her. Rory returned the hug and relaxed, glad that she was happy. 

,,, 

River popped into the TARDIS, and headed to the kitchen. She spotted the two blonde women pressed close together as they sipped their tea and looked at the same newspaper. River cleared her throat to get their attention. “I’ve just been to your wedding. Again. Ever since I regenerated, I was wondering how long it would be before I was invited back.” She slid into the seat across from the married couple (currently the kitchen looked half like an American 50s diner, including vinyl booths, and half like a soggy mess, thanks to the pool having integrated itself into the kitchen some time ago). 

Rose grinned, and reached across the table to pat River’s hand. “It was tough to decide, but in the end I figured that this was a time when you would benefit the most from it.”

River rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t hide her happiness. “It was your wedding. You shouldn’t have been thinking about what would be best for me, especially since I was already there.” She leaned back in her seat and shrugged. “It was strange to be there, though. Seeing my parents again, looking so young and carefree.”

“No one is carefree,” the Doctor said with a snort. Then there was a distant dinging sound from somewhere in the TARDIS, and she leapt up to her feet. “Oh- the thing should be done!” She pressed a hurried kiss to the top of Rose’s head before rushing off to see whatever thing it was that she’d been in the middle of working on. 

Rose gave River an amused smile. “At least I can get this one to sit down for longer than a minute.” She slowly got to her feet, and then reached down for River’s hand. “Come on, there’s something I want to show you.” 

River followed Rose to Rose’s studio, and over to the gallery wall. There was a new painting hanging there- or at least it was one that River hadn’t been able to see before. It was a painting of the different faces River had worn, along with the many people she’d found and lost along the way. She reached up to brush her fingers along the beautifully rendered faces of her parents, along with the brother she’d always been too afraid to go meet. 

There were three or four different Clara’s throughout the painting, along with some of the other TARDIS travelers who River had grown to care for. There were the faces of the four different Doctors she’d known, along with two strangers who she assumed were Doctors that she would meet someday. There were some old friends that she was pretty sure Rose had never met before, and Jack was tucked away in one corner looking amused. 

Then River looked back at Rose, eyebrows furrowed. “Why aren’t you in this?”

Rose looked confused. “Why would I be?”

River rolled her eyes. She would never understand how a woman with the ability to see all of Time could be such an idiot sometimes. “Because this is clearly supposed to be a painting of my family.”

Rose’s eyes widened, and she suddenly looked a little teary-eyed. “Oh. I- oh.”

River laughed. “You finding me is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Thank you.” Then she pulled Rose into a hug, which was returned immediately. River knew that she would not change her life for anything, and was so grateful for the day that Rose had landed in the wrong place. Because it seemed as though maybe it had never been the wrong place at all.


End file.
